The sun moved westward, the autumn wind suddenly rose, and the city gradually grew cold.

Meng Tinghui sat motionless in a corner of the street, her head slightly lowered, eyes half-closed, so still that she looked as if she had fallen asleep against the wall.

The wind stirred her hair, blew her wide sleeves that hung at her sides, swept across the hem of her official robes now soiled with sand and dirt, then rushed straight toward the distant crimson sunset, scattering wisps of clouds.

Suddenly, the sharp sound of a signal arrow cut through the air.

She opened her eyes abruptly.

Half an hour had passed since Shen Zhishu left the city, and the rebel troops had gradually gathered at the north gate. This arrow signal must be Huo Dewei’s order to open the gates and surrender weapons.

A soldier came running, calling out to her: “Madam Meng!” Seeing her look up, he called again: “Commander Huo requests Madam Meng to come to the north gate to jointly oversee the opening of the city and the surrender of weapons!”

Finally, it had come.

Meng Tinghui stood up and looked toward the depths of the city. She saw civilians hearing the commotion and opening their doors slightly to peek outside. Her expression lightened as she turned to follow the soldier toward the north gate.

Before they got close, she could see from afar that the area around the gate was desolate. The guards on the city wall were rushing down in haste. Armor and spears moved in disarray, with broken feathers and discarded weapons littering the ground.

Having killed officials, occupied the city, and captured civilians, the rebellion had lasted over a month. Though these soldiers appeared arrogant and spoiled, they couldn’t help but worry about their lives. Now that they had received the imperial pardon, most of them had cast aside their worries and were eager to leave the city and surrender their weapons.

She looked around in the crowd and after a while finally spotted the red tassel swaying on Huo Dewei’s helmet. She weaved through the crowd to his side and called out to him: “Commander Huo.”

Seeing that she had arrived, Huo Dewei stepped back and ordered several men beside him to go forward and fully open the city gates.

Clouds like fire flowed across the sky as gray dust fell from the high walls. With several thunderous sounds, the thick, peeling lacquered wooden double doors of the inner city were forcefully pulled open by more than ten soldiers.

Meng Tinghui’s heart tightened. Looking out, she saw rows of armored troops standing densely outside the barbican, with Di Nian in his gleaming silver armor in the middle of the front row.

Only then did she feel slightly relieved.

She turned to Huo Dewei and said: “Commander Huo has kept his word. Later, I will certainly report to His Majesty about Commander Huo’s merit in restraining the rebel troops.”

Huo Dewei said in a low voice: “It is already a great fortune that His Majesty does not punish me for my crimes. What merit could I claim?”

Meng Tinghui’s eyes flickered slightly, her lips pressed thin as she fell silent. Her crimson official robes stood out starkly among the chaotic armor and sharp weapons.

Di Nian, holding his spear while on horseback, spotted her behind the crowd with a single glance. Only then did he breathe a great sigh of relief as he ordered the imperial soldiers to enter through the gate, collecting the spears, arrows, bows, and swords surrendered by the rebel troops and returning them to the city’s armory? He also assigned several dozen military officers to verify the military registers with the rebel squad leaders. He remained on horseback outside the barbican with his subordinates, watching the rebel troops inside discard their weapons and armor one by one, registering their names.

Meng Tinghui continued to stand behind Huo Dewei. Her gaze swept over the imperial soldiers outside, mentally calculating their numbers. She noticed that there were several hundred more than when she had first entered the city, knowing that Di Nian had recalled all the troops previously scattered every five li. From this, she could deduce that the main army led by Song Zhirui must not be far from the city. Thinking of this, her heart felt more at ease.

Everything seemed to be proceeding in an orderly manner.

By the time most of the rebel troops had surrendered their armor, the sky had darkened. Around the high walls, a crescent moon hung clear in the fading light as lamps began to glow in civilian homes.

Meng Tinghui looked around at the few soldiers who had not yet removed their armor, then turned to Huo Dewei and said: “Night has fallen. To prevent any disturbances, why not close the inner city gates and let the garrison troops continue the weapons surrender and registration with the imperial soldiers outside the barbican?”

Huo Dewei frowned, raising his eyes to look at the imperial troops outside, merely a few hundred strong. After a moment’s hesitation, he said: “Let’s follow Madam Meng’s suggestion.” He then ordered that the soldiers who had not yet surrendered their armor and registered be driven outside the barbican, and commanded those officers who had already surrendered their weapons to also enter the barbican to supervise the soldiers.

Seeing that everyone had left the inner city, she walked out with Huo Dewei, passing through two layers of high, wide city tunnels, avoiding the soldiers in the barbican, until they reached the outer city gate.

The inner city’s double gates were heavily closed from the inside by the imperial soldiers in charge of the armory. When Di Nian saw her emerge, a smile involuntarily spread across his face. Just as he was about to ride over, he noticed horsemen galloping from the west, apparently bringing news.

Meng Tinghui also noticed the movement but did not comment, only casually glancing in that direction. In the dim evening light, looking west, one could faintly see banners unfurling against the wind and a dark mass of troops advancing slowly and silently toward them.

Beside her, Huo Dewei was still berating the slow-moving soldiers. None of the rebel military officers had noticed the unusual situation to the west, and they were still laughing and joking as they pushed and shoved each other.

She saw Di Nian turn his horse to meet the messenger. From a distance, she couldn’t see clearly, but in the dim evening light, she saw Di Nian make several hand gestures to the person, who then reined in his horse and galloped back to the western formation.

…It must be Song Zhirui’s troops.

After sending the messenger away, Di Nian quickly rode back toward the city gate, bypassing several imperial soldiers and heading straight for her, as if he had something to tell her.

Meng Tinghui, originally standing at the outer city gate, caught a glimpse of Di Nian’s figure in her peripheral vision and sidled a few steps toward a group of soldiers who were jostling and joking with each other.

The soldiers, unaware of her presence behind them, made a careless movement. One turned around and accidentally bumped into her. Though the force wasn’t great, she acted as if in pain and fell backward.

“Madam Meng!” The soldier who had bumped into her stood frozen, while several nearby soldiers suddenly panicked and called out in alarm.

Hearing the commotion, Huo Dewei turned around to see Meng Tinghui fallen on the ground. He quickly strode over, helped her up, severely reprimanded the soldiers, then concernedly asked her: “Is Madam Meng uninjured?”

Meng Tinghui’s face was contorted with pain, bent at the waist, and unable to stand straight. Huo Dewei dared not embrace her, so he could only grab her arm and pull her outward, intending to take her to a quiet place outside the city gate.

But she mumbled a few sounds and, following his force, fell straight to the ground.

Di Nian saw this from afar. His brows tightened suddenly as he shouted: “Madam Meng!” He immediately cracked his whip and galloped to the foot of the wall.

Meng Tinghui looked up, immediately seeing his silver armor and long spear. She shrank her arm back and urgently said: “Lieutenant Di, save me!”

Huo Dewei’s hand remained frozen in mid-air, stunned and at a loss.

This time, Di Nian had led imperial troops thousands of li from the capital to pacify the rebels—a heavy responsibility. Protecting Meng Tinghui at all costs made him even more cautious. Now, in the barbican where rebel weapons had not been fully collected, with Song Zhirui’s ten thousand troops approaching from the west, he was already on edge, alert to the slightest movement.

Now, suddenly seeing her fall to the ground among the rebel troops, being roughly dragged and calling to him for help, Di Nian’s entire body tensed. Without thinking, he charged forward on his horse, swinging his arm with the spear—

The long spear’s gleaming blade pressed against Huo Dewei’s left chest armor with such force that it knocked Huo Dewei to the ground.

The sound of the spear tip breaking through the armor plates was piercingly sharp.

Huo Dewei took a deep breath, his large hand gripping the spearhead, and shouted: “Lieutenant Di!”

Di Nian gritted his teeth, forcefully twisting his wrist. The spear shaft pressed across Huo Dewei’s shoulder with its blade against his throat. Di Nian turned his head and urgently said to Meng Tinghui: “Madam Meng, quickly come out!”

In the Barbican, whether imperial soldiers or rebel troops, everyone was stunned. Before they could react to what was happening, they saw Meng Tinghui, clutching her chest, staggering out through the outer city gate tunnel.

The imperial soldiers who had been waiting outside the city for a long time immediately surrounded her, protecting her in their midst, awaiting Di Nian’s orders.

Meng Tinghui’s face was pale, the pain causing her temples to twitch. She pointed at the two men in front of her and, with a face full of anger, rebuked Huo Dewei: “Disregarding my honor, I traveled thousands of li with His Majesty’s edict to manifest the Emperor’s great benevolence. Yet you ignored His Majesty’s merciful heart and attacked me. What were your intentions, and how dare you place His Majesty in such a position?!”

Huo Dewei remained dumbfounded. After a while, his expression changed as he began to understand. Becoming anxious, he shouted: “You…!”

She looked up at Di Nian and sternly said: “Huo Dewei, seeing that my imperial troops were few, pretended to surrender and submit to the imperial court, but his heart harbors great treachery! Such rebels and traitors must be executed first, then reported to the throne!”

Some officers in the barbican had begun to react, causing immediate chaos. The imperial soldiers responsible for collecting weapons quickly retreated from the city tunnel and gathered around Di Nian.

Huo Dewei’s hand gripping the spear tip was already bleeding. He shouted to Di Nian: “We were sincerely surrendering our weapons and submitting to the imperial court! Lieutenant Di, do not listen to her nonsense!”

Meng Tinghui laughed coldly: “County Magistrate Gao Hai’s head still hangs high on the post. Are those clusters of sharp arrows fake? How do I know that the next person to have their head cut off and filled with arrows won’t be Lieutenant Di or myself? Along the northern border, there are numerous garrisons, with the Chao’an region alone having eight! If your Liuqi Garrison rebels like this today without severe punishment, other garrisons will surely follow suit tomorrow!” She turned her head and again loudly said to Di Nian: “Since the rebels dared to harm me today, they will surely point their swords at His Majesty in the future! Lieutenant Di must not show leniency!”

Blue veins bulged on Di Nian’s forehead. As he hesitated, he heard the rebel soldiers in the barbican shouting and cursing. Those who had already discarded their weapons and armor rushed forward to seize the spears and swords that had been collected, while those who had not yet surrendered their armor gathered their spears in one place, shouting that since things had come to this, they might as well fight it out with the imperial troops—at least they might preserve their lives!

Huo Dewei panted heavily, turning his head anxiously to shout: “Don’t riot! Do not raise weapons against His Majesty’s imperial troops! You cannot…”

But how could those emotionally charged rebel troops hear these words? The jarring sounds of clashing weapons and armor were exceptionally harsh as they were about to surge out from the barbican.

Di Nian’s eyes suddenly filled with blood, his face terrifyingly pale. He said in a deep voice: “Do they truly intend to rebel?” He glared at Huo Dewei on the ground. “You thought that because His Majesty dispatched only a few hundred imperial troops, they could not subdue you. That was indeed a great mistake!”

Huo Dewei could no longer speak. His eyes fixed intensely on Meng Tinghui, protected amid the imperial troops, his gaze so fierce it seemed he wanted to devour her flesh and blood.

She lowered her eyes delicately. The hand clutching her chest moved, her brows furrowed, and she again made sounds of pain.

Immediately, two people came forward, helped her onto horseback, and quickly escorted her away from the city.

Seeing that she had left, Di Nian angrily stared at the rebel troops in the barbican who were holding spears and swords and about to exit the city. He shouted to the imperial troops on both sides of the outer city: “Close the gates!”

With a forceful twist of his wrist, the sharp blade of his long spear slashed across Huo Dewei’s throat, spraying blood in all directions.

The imperial soldiers quickly moved to close the high outer gates. Seeing this, the rebel troops surged forward en masse. Someone accidentally knocked over a corner lamp, and the flames spread along the uncollected spear shafts on the ground, unstoppable. The fire quickly spread in the barbican. The imperial soldiers outside on both sides could not withstand the fierce flames and abandoned the gates in retreat. Many rebels had already rushed out, engaging the imperial soldiers in fierce combat.

The ground trembled subtly beneath their feet. Behind them, the sound of galloping hooves grew louder, coming faster and more violently, like rolling waves of a great river, surging in endless layers.

Di Nian drew his sword and cut down a man, then raised his arm to wipe the hot blood from his face. He quickly looked back. In the night’s firelight, among the troops, armor gleamed brilliantly. On the commander’s banner, a large character “Song” stood out, and through the bloody scene, it penetrated directly into his eyes.

Even at such a distance from the outer city, one could still smell the heavy scent of blood.

Meng Tinghui had long dismounted and was now outside a simple tent set up by Cao Zixiong and others two li from the city. Half-crouched, she was dry heaving repeatedly.

Having eaten and drunk nothing all day, with extreme nausea in her heart and acid churning in her stomach, yet there was nothing to vomit out.

Her hands pressed on her knees as she buried her head. Her long hair had already become completely disheveled, sliding from the top of her head to hang before her eyes, obscuring heaven and earth, hiding her own eyes.

Her shoulders trembled.

Though she knew it was impossible to hear from this distance, distinct sounds of heart-wrenching slaughter and screams seemed to reach her ears, unceasing, each piercing her eardrums.

With the inner city gates closed, what escape route could the rebel troops possibly have in the Barbican? Outside, the imperial troops led by Di Nian were all exceptionally fierce soldiers, and with the ten thousand troops led by Song Zhirui from the Qingzhou garrison, slaughtering these rebels would require no effort at all.

The night sky was starless, as black as if soaked in ink.

The cold wind swept across her shoulders, penetrating the collar of her official robes, and making her shudder.

They deserved to die.

Thinking of Gao Hai’s unresigned eyes in death, thinking of the rebels’ disregard for the law and the emperor’s authority, and further thinking of the dozens of garrisons along the northern border…

How could they not be killed?

Yet she didn’t understand why her heart felt so distressed.

She had originally thought that doing everything she could for him would make her happy, would make her satisfied.

But now she felt no happiness at all, no satisfaction at all.

Yet what else could she do?

Even if she had followed his orders directly and killed all the rebel troops, would it be any better than the present situation? In the end, they were all human lives.

Thousands of human lives.

This was her first involvement in military affairs, and she had caused thousands of lives to vanish by her hand.

With her eyes closed, her fingernails dug deeply into her palms.

If he saw her now, would he laugh at her uselessness, would he laugh at her weakness, would he laugh at her inability to accomplish great deeds?

His Empress Mother had once worn soft armor and galloped on horseback across smoke-filled battlefields. The lives that had passed through her hands numbered far more than a few thousand.

But she didn’t know if that woman—renowned throughout the world, high above others, unparalleled in magnificence and beauty—had also been afraid, had also dreaded, had also regretted bloodying her hands.

…

Suddenly, heavy footsteps sounded behind her.

Meng Tinghui abruptly stood up and turned to look, directly meeting a pair of beautiful eyes, dark and deep in the night, faintly reflecting the distant firelight.

Shen Zhishu stopped, looked at her for a long while, and then said: “Go rest for a while first. At daybreak, I’ll send you back to Qingzhou.”

She raised her hand to gather her hair, her expression calm, but when she spoke, her voice was somewhat hoarse and trembling: “If I return to Qingzhou, how will the various matters in the city be concluded?”

His expression changed slightly. After a while, he said: “You came to proclaim the imperial edict. The remaining matters are not your concern. Cao Zixiong will stay behind to properly handle the affairs in the city.”

Meng Tinghui nodded and stepped toward the tent, but just before entering, she turned back and looked at him, saying: “Will Master Shen draft a memorial to His Majesty tonight?”

Shen Zhishu looked at her and slowly nodded.

She lowered her eyes. “How does Master Shen intend to write about today’s events?”

He slightly raised his eyebrows, his expression somewhat solemn. After a long while, he said: “I did not personally witness the events at the city gate, so I dare not report casually. It depends on how Madam Meng plans to draft her memorial.”

Meng Tinghui’s lips twitched slightly. She softly said “Thank you” to him and, without waiting for him to speak further, turned and entered the tent.